ChineseStudy

Tune: Magnolia (Ouyang Xiu)

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Text

English translation

Since the parting, I do not know how far away you are. Whatever I see feels desolate and weighs on me. You go farther and farther, and letters grow fewer until they stop; with waters wide and fish sunk below, where can I ask for news?

Deep at night, wind strikes bamboo leaves into an autumn rhythm. A thousand sounds from countless leaves seem to voice the same grief. The speaker leans against a solitary pillow, hoping to search for the beloved in a dream; no dream comes, and the lamp burns out.

词句注释 · Notes

上片 · First stanza

上片把距离拉远与音信断绝并写。“鱼沉”沿用鱼雁传书的文学意象，和“水阔”共同表达消息难通，不是说真的向鱼问讯。

The stanza links growing distance with the loss of letters. “Fish sunk below” draws on the literary imagery of messages carried by fish and geese; together with the wide water, it conveys how unreachable news has become.

下片 · Second stanza

下片以风竹声把外界秋意转化为内心愁恨，继而写到倚枕求梦而不得。“灯又烬”落在天将明未明的孤夜，收束音信断绝后的无眠。

Wind through bamboo turns the outer autumn into inward grief. The speaker seeks the absent one in a dream but cannot sleep; the lamp burning out closes the scene of a long, wakeful night.

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